Hayward Slammed by Lawmakers as Stonewalling on Spill

BP CEO Tony Hayward is sworn in before a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on the accident in the Gulf of Mexico involving the BP Deepwater Horizon rig. Photographer: Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg

June 17 (Bloomberg) -- BP Plc Chief Executive Officer Tony
Hayward was denounced by U.S. lawmakers for stonewalling as he
failed to answer questions about the causes of the oil well
explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.

“I’m just amazed at this testimony,” Representative Henry
Waxman, a California Democrat, told Hayward at a hearing in
Washington today, where the CEO said it was too early to reach
conclusions. “You’re just kicking the can down the road.”

Hayward, 53, making his first appearance before Congress
since the explosion of the company’s well on April 20, was
blasted by Waxman for being unprepared to answer questions
submitted to him in advance by a House panel. Hayward said
repeatedly he wasn’t involved in any decision-making about the
well’s operation.

“I expect you to cooperate with us,” Waxman, chairman of
the House Energy Committee, said. “Are you failing to cooperate
with other investigations as well? Because they’re going to have
a hard time reaching conclusions if you stonewall them.”

Hayward declined to answer a volley of questions about
actions on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the days before
the explosion, citing pending investigations and saying he
wasn’t personally involved in judgments made in drilling the
well.

“There was after all BP executives who were on that rig,
BP executives who ultimately could have made the call to stop
operations when things became unsafe, and ultimately you are the
person at the top and you are responsible,” Burgess said. He
said federal regulators also should have been called before the
panel for questioning.

Representative Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat, told
Hayward that committee members were frustrated that he was
providing “little substance.”

“I hope you will be more forthcoming,” said Stupak, who
heads the subcommittee that held the hearing.

The questions submitted to Hayward by Waxman and Stupak in
a letter this week concerned decisions such as the use of a
less-robust well design, failure to anchor the well’s casing
using a process recommended under industry practices and cutting
short procedures to ensure cementing was sound.

Changes Made

Since the spill began, BP has “made changes with respect
to the testing and evaluation of blowout preventers,” Hayward
said. The device, intended to cut off a leak, failed at the
Macondo well, which continues to gush as much as 60,000 barrels
of oil a day.

BP also made changes to ensure that “people likely to deal
with well control are fully up-to-date and validated,” he said.

Hayward said he “had no prior knowledge of the drilling of
this well,” and “I wasn’t part of the decision-making process
on this well. I am not a cement engineer.”

BP agreed yesterday in a meeting with President Barack
Obama to establish a $20 billion fund to pay damages from the
spill, and to temporarily suspend dividends as Gulf residents
and businesses file claims.

BP’s American depositary receipts, which traded for as much
as $32.46 before the hearing, fell after the questioning of
Hayward began to as low as $31.25. They traded at $31.42, down
1.4 percent, at 2:23 p.m. New York time.